Minutes - TRIPS Council - View details of the intervention/statement

Ms Irene Young (Hong Kong, China)
World Trade Organization
13 INFORMATION ON RELEVANT DEVELOPMENTS ELSEWHERE IN THE WTO
328. Many thanks for giving the Secretariat an opportunity to provide an update of IPR-related issues as they have come up in the most recent Trade Policy Reviews. 329. Since the last TRIPS Council Meeting in March, the Trade Policy Reviews of Japan, Mexico, Belize, Mozambique, Switzerland and Liechtenstein have taken place. I am pleased to report that Members continue to substantively contribute to the discussions on TRIPS-related issues during these reviews. 330. Members continued to engage in a constructive dialogue on a wide range of trade related IP issues, including: implementation of the TRIPS Agreement; exhaustion regimes; copyrights and related rights; copyright infringement exceptions; protection of software; protection of well-known and non-traditional trademarks; revocation procedures for trademarks; the protection of geographical indications; patent protection for agricultural chemical products; extension of patent protection periods; protection of undisclosed information and test data; compulsory licences; plant variety protection; enforcement of IP rights, online and at the border; functioning of the "piracy mailbox"; protection of trade secrets and their enforcement at the border; support for SMEs using the IP system; establishment of technology licence offices at universities; IP dispute resolution system; national IP strategies; IP chapters in regional trade agreements; and accession to the WIPO Marrakesh Treaty to Facilitate Access to Published Works for Persons who are Blind, Visually Impaired or Otherwise Print Disabled. 331. The Secretariat continues to collaborate on IP-related issues for Trade Policy Reviews and the preparation of the DG's Monitoring Reports. As in the past, this update is intended just to give Members an overview of the issues that have come up in these reviews for their background information.
The Council took note of the statement made.
37. The Chairperson said that, since the March 2017 meeting of the Council, the following Members had deposited their instruments of acceptance of the Protocol Amending the TRIPS Agreement: Sierra Leone (21 March); Fiji (5 May); and, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines (9 May). Currently, the amended TRIPS Agreement applied to 116 Members. She noted that the remaining 48 Members were still operating under the 2003 waiver Decision. She intended to write to those Members reminding them that they were expected to complete their domestic acceptance procedures and to submit their instruments of acceptance by the end of 2017, when the current deadline for acceptance of the Protocol was due to expire.

38. The Chairperson also recalled that, at its meeting on 30 January, when the Council had taken note of the entry into force of the amended TRIPS Agreement, Members had expressed their interest in considering how the Paragraph 6 System could be effectively used, in practice, as a procurement tool to respond to public health needs. She concurred with the view of the former Chairperson of the Council that, when the Council conducted the annual review of the System at its next meeting in October, reference could be made to the information contained, and issues identified, in the 2016 Annual Review11, as well as Annex II to the WTO Secretariat's Annual Report on its Technical Cooperation Activities.12 She announced her intention to consult Members in the coming months on how to prepare for a meaningful review.

39. The Chairperson invited the Secretariat to provide an update on IPR-related issues that had been considered in the context of individual Members' trade policy reviews.

40. The representative of the Secretariat took the floor.

41. The Council took note of the statement made.

IP/C/M/86, IP/C/M/86/Add.1